Still (and no offence to fellow bloggers who may have been involved...) they should have got some better PR managers in - hardly anything on most of the major news websites two hours after the launch? No prominent pre-publicity? No website? (At least, it looks that way - the old Yes campaign one has been dead for ages.) If this makes the evening news (bar probably a brief mention on Channel Four) I'll be amazed.

So, are they going to make a proper effort this time? The "Vote No" lot are organised (even if they have the occasional spat) and extremely vocal, and have been for ages. They've also got the advantage of preaching to a largely ignorant population who believe all the euromyths with the support of the majority of the media. It's going to be a difficult fight.

As has been pointed out, this campaign should have launched ages ago: "if the Yes camp is to exploit the fluidity of opinion, it needs to seize the initiative. Crucial for a Yes result will be a well planned, powerfully sustained campaign. To a considerable extent, the No camp can afford to rest on their laurels. The pro-constitutionalists must start making up ground early."

They've ballsed up the starting early part, but I suppose there's still a year to go - and at least they're finally making an effort. Nonetheless, us pro-EU lot have been waiting a long time for some kind of decent organisation, and been let down and frustrated by the lack of effort for years. I wish them luck, obviously, but they need to get their act together properly this time.

Hearts and minds, people - hearts and minds. We can't just rely on the politicians getting everything through - that's just going to piss the general public off. Without popular support it's pointless - it'll just become the undemocratic monster the Eurosceptics already claim it is...

3 Comments:

Ah-ha! A new website! I'd assumed they'd take over the old one - or is this Yes Campaign not affiliated with the old Yes Campaign?

As I say, no offence intended, but I only found out about it on the off-chance while hunting for something else. Google News still has very little, and there was no mention (that I noticed, although I was doing other things at the time) on the news last night (any of them) or the Today Programme this morning (although I might have missed it while in the shower). I haven't had a chance to look at the papers this morning, however.

The basic point still stands, however, it's about bloody time pro-Europeans got organised. 30 days before the Spanish referendum may not be long enough to get going - unless there has been some serious pre-planning, and a lot of fundraising going on that I haven't caught wind of.

And a new pro-EU blog as well! Hurrah! Although I must admit I think it may be somewhat detrimental to the campaign to have people described as "European Federalists" taking a prominent role - it may put some of the more mild Eurosceptics off a bit. (This is, of course, speaking as someone who's never heard of JEF before, so I may have got the wrong idea.)

Still, I'll have a read and try to put up a link or two to bunk the site higher up the Google rankings. Fingers crossed that our anti-EU cousins don't treat the new blog thingie with the same degree of contempt as they have our dear Commission blogger...

Agreed - and I'm not in the least offended - it's nothing to do with me! :-) JEF has been around for about 30 years I think, but it's more high profile on the continent. And as usual, the F-word rears its ugly head, with those using it blithely overlooking the fact that it means something quite different to the British eurosceptic tabloids than it does to our continental neighbours!